Vice-Chancellor Bruce Dowton
Macquarie University

Minister for Education Steve Whan
Department of Education

Race Discrimination Commissioner Giridharan Sivaraman
Australian Human Rights Commission

Sex Discrimination Commissioner Anna Cody
Australian Human Rights Commission

We, the undersigned university researchers, educators, students, and professional staff, strongly condemn Macquarie University’s recent redundancy decisions, which represent a clear example of institutional racism and sexism.

These redundancies have disproportionately affected women, people of colour, and especially women of colour. Union members were also overrepresented among those made redundant, and unionised disciplines were disproportionately targeted during the spill-and-fill process. These patterns indicate systemic bias rather than neutral or fair restructuring.

Macquarie University’s actions appear to breach key anti-discrimination laws, including the Racial Discrimination Act 1975 (Cth), which gives effect to the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, and the Sex Discrimination Act 1984 (Cth), which prohibits discrimination based on sex in employment and education. They also contravene the Anti-Discrimination Act 1977 (NSW), which outlaws racial and sex discrimination in employment, education, and service provision. The university has failed to implement fair and non-discriminatory selection processes, resulting in clear adverse outcomes for protected groups.

This intersectional discrimination undermines both Australian law and the core values of equity, diversity, and inclusion that universities are expected to uphold. We therefore call for immediate and meaningful action, including the reinstatement of all staff who were made redundant and an independent external investigation into Macquarie University’s discriminatory conduct.

The 2025 restructuring at Macquarie University—including the forced redundancy of nine academic roles in the Faculty of Arts and approximately forty-seven voluntary redundancies—has caused severe gendered and racial harm. Available data shows that seven women and two men were forcibly made redundant across the School of International Studies, the School of Communication, Society and Culture, and the School of Education. These decisions have left several disciplines with significant gender imbalance. For example, Politics and International Relations now retains only one woman alongside five men. In Sociology, women already made up a minority—four of fourteen staff before redundancies, following earlier voluntary exits in 2021. After the 2025 cuts, only one woman remains among six academics.

Women, people of colour, and people with disabilities were disproportionately affected. Every person of colour in Sociology was either made redundant or reassigned to teaching-only roles. Three of the four academics in the Faculty of Arts moved into teaching-only positions were people of colour, and two Arab Middle Eastern women were made redundant. While precise data on disability, chronic illness, and neurodivergence is limited, our understanding is that this group represents less than 20% of staff, yet accounts for more than 40% of redundancies, indicating extreme over-representation.

The consequences are wide-ranging. Humanities disciplines such as ancient history, archaeology, creative arts, politics, international relations, and sociology—fields that produce critical scholarship on equity, social justice, and cultural representation—have been severely weakened. Macquarie University is diminishing its research capacity and restricting the production of knowledge on colonialism, gender relations, and racial justice. Teaching quality has also suffered, with nearly one-third of Arts subjects set to be removed by 2026. Students are being denied exposure to diverse perspectives, reinforcing narrow and monocultural curricula. This is most evident in the elimination of the Gender Studies major and all related units, as well as specialist courses addressing racism and diversity.

Community engagement has also been damaged. Many of the affected staff led outreach and support initiatives focused on anti-racism and gender equity, leaving vulnerable communities without vital resources.

These outcomes cannot be explained by financial necessity. Internal planning documents and modelling—reported by the National Tertiary Education Union—show that Macquarie University leadership rejected alternative strategies capable of achieving the $55 million savings target without job losses. Instead, the executive chose forced redundancies, including at least eighteen imminent terminations. This was a deliberate decision rather than an unavoidable fiscal response and suggests targeted harm to marginalised staff within vulnerable disciplines. These actions also conflict with enterprise agreement commitments related to fair change management and reducing casualisation.

Macquarie University’s conduct reflects broader, well-documented patterns of racism within the higher education sector, as outlined in the Australian Human Rights Commission’s Racism@Uni interim report (December 2024) and related studies. These reports highlight widespread structural and interpersonal racism, disproportionately affecting First Nations peoples and African, Asian, Arab, and Muslim staff and students, alongside increasing antisemitism and Islamophobia. Macquarie’s actions exemplify this systemic crisis and undermine Australia’s international human rights obligations.

We reject racism and misogyny in our universities. To address this injustice and prevent further harm, we call for the following actions:

Immediate reinstatement of all staff who were made redundant, particularly women and people of colour, with full backpay and safeguards against retaliation. All voluntary redundancies should be reviewed for evidence of coercion.

An independent external investigation into racism and sexism at Macquarie University, led by the Australian Human Rights Commission, with public reporting on intersectional impacts. This must include a review of selection criteria, redeployment processes, and executive accountability.

Ministerial intervention, urging the Minister for Education to act at both federal and NSW levels under the Higher Education Support Act 2003 (Cth) and relevant oversight mechanisms, including withholding funding until compliance with anti-discrimination laws is demonstrated and requiring sector-wide equity audits.

Leadership from the Race and Sex Discrimination Commissioners, including formal investigation under statutory powers, conciliation or litigation where necessary, and incorporation of findings into the final Racism@Uni report due in December 2025. This should involve collaboration with the Islamophobia Envoy and Register to address anti-Arab and anti-Muslim discrimination.

Failure to take immediate action will amount to complicity in the continuation of institutional discrimination within Australian higher education.